591. Rabbi Rami Shapiro

A Jewish practitioner of Perennial Wisdom, Rabbi Rami Shapiro is an award–winning author of over thirty-six books on religion and spirituality. He received rabbinical ordination from the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion and holds a PH.D. in religion from Union Graduate School. A rabbinic chaplain with the USAF for 3 years, a congregational rabbi for 20, and a professor of religious studies for 10, Rabbi Rami currently co-directs the One River Foundation, is a Contributing Editor at Spirituality and Health magazine, and hosts the magazine’s bi-weekly podcast, Essential Conversations with Rabbi Rami. Website: rabbirami.com Books: Recovery―The Sacred Art: The Twelve Steps as Spiritual Practice (The Art of Spiritual Living) Holy Rascals: Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries Perennial Wisdom for the Spiritually Independent: Sacred Teachings―Annotated & Explained (SkyLight Illuminations) The World Wisdom Bible: A New Testament for a Global Spirituality Surrendered―The Sacred Art: Shattering the Illusion of Control and Falling into Grace with Twelve-Step Spirituality (The Art of Spiritual Living) Some points discussed in this interview: Rabbi Rami’s spiritual journey through superficial Judaism through various traditions to a deep mystical Judaism. Humanity’s transition from matriarchy to patriarchy is the root cause of most of our problems. A collapse of norms is coming. Will it be mindful or mindless? Widespread spiritual practice will help the best outcome to manifest. Escape to another planet, to the transcendent, to heaven is not the answer. We need a balance between transcendence and immanence. The 10 ox herding pictures. Social justice work without a spiritual practice can be draining and ego-driven. Fundamentalist misinterpretations of Scripture. Perennial wisdom is a 4-fold teaching at the heart of all religions. As consciousness expands, personal shadows are illuminated and must be dealt with. Non-dual Judaism is a very rich religion. Tribal Judaism is ‘craziness’. Religions take advantage of people’s fear of death. Emo Phillips - Golden Gate Bridge skit Different perspectives on reincarnation. Out-of-body experiences suggest the existence of a subtle body. Metaphor: the brain as a radio receiver. Body, heart, mind, soul, spirit – We need to develop practices on each of those dimensions. Rami’s mystical experiences, including instruction from the Divine Mother. From a relative perspective, there are separate beings, but ultimately, it’s all God. Discussion on food addiction. Holy Rascals introduce mystical elements not necessarily welcomed by mainstream religion. Administrators are always threatened by the mystics. Perhaps in the coming years experiential, mystical religions rather than dead ones will predominate. The dead ones are rapidly losing membership. Discussion of this interview in the BatGap Community Facebook Group. Interview recorded March 14, 2021 Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.